Since no one is really interested in interviewing me, I decided to do a self interview. This is my version of “self portrait”, especially since I can’t draw (or sing. or dance. Shows something about the qualities of VCs)

Why haven’t you blogged for since mid September?

Can’t really say. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to write. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say. I actually had a lot to say, but my typing hands were heavy.

Do you think you are now officially back to blogging?

I can’t promise anything. But I will try. I will also be blogging at the Gemini blog.

Can you highlight the top 3 events that happened in your life in the past 60 days, just to fill the gap.

Sure. Business: We made another investment (eKoloko, an official post to come tomorrow). Music: I saw Pearl Jam live again, and I also saw Shalom Hanoch live. Sports: Patriots are back at it, Hapoel Haifa are not. Overall, seems like everything is “normal”.

Do you feel the Venture Industry in Israel is active again?

Absolutely. Deals are happening, especially since a lot of funds have dry powder to invest. However, Israel is part of the global venture industry, which is going through some turmoil. Nothing dramatic will happen in Israel in 2009/10, but we may see some changes in the local investment scene in 2-3 years.

What makes you optimistic?

AdMob. Mint. Gomez. Good companies are being acquired, and it feels that if we invest and support good companies, we will be rewarded.

A few days ago I sat down with the BI (Business Intelligence) manager in one of my portfolio companies. He showed me some key metrics on the business, and what they are measuring as they try to understand the fundamentals of the business.

Analytics is a key part of any web business, and in today’s world – any business, web or non-web. Everything needs to be measured, and it’s important to measure the right things. A lot of times, it’s the trivial stuff (# of users, growth, conversion) but other times it’s much more sophisticated (repeat users, traffic sources, segmentation, churn, etc.).

Having good metrics is important as they provide good information, and GREAT stories. Sitting with the BI manager taught me a lot about the business of that portfolio company. What is really happening? What customers are profitable? Where can we make more money? What are the current bottlenecks? With such insights, you can addicted to analytical information, as much as you can be addicted to the performance of a public stock. As such, I ask my companies to share data on a monthly basis. That’s the minimum resolution where you can see real changes, that are beyond just noise. I never want to get access to Google Analytics. As a board member, getting daily information can kill you.

A lot has been written on the importance of analytics. Check 360innovate as one example. Or just search Google for “importance of analytics”.

Now, here is a personal thought on analytics. I sometimes wish I could have analytics on my life. Some sort of a measurement tool on everything. Just for me. How many flights did I ever take? How much km did I run to date (total)? How many people did I meet? I can’t get this information. Is it interesting? Not sure. But maybe my grand kids will have all that in a database one day.

It's been 2 weeks since the accident, and a week since the Funeral of Nahum and Nava, and I have been thinking about them a lot. Clearly, Nahum was not a close friend of mine. We interacted a lot around eSnips, and some point (late 2008) we spoke on a daily basis. However, there is much I didn't know about him.

Still – his sudden death made me think about his legacy, and I now know that I have learned a lot from Nahum. Not all things can be written, but still, there are few things I took from him that will always be with me.

First of all, Nahum looked at the business in a very unemotional way. Every challenge was treated in the best way possible, without ego, and without personal emotions. I admire that, and I really think that putting emotions aside creates the best outcome for all people involved. That was the way Nahum treated the many challenges we had at eSnips, especially toward the end.

Second, Nahum always emphasized the big picture. It's never about the details, but the need to focus on the large, and important issues. I think that relates to his physics background, and for me – it's a critical part of my day-to-day job.

Finally, It was all about the attitude. No matter when we met, Nahum was always joking, always smiling, and always "playing the game". Even when I disagreed with him, it was always a pleasure to interact with him.

Yesterday I looked through all the old emails from Nahum, and I have many of them. I was hoping to find some emotional nugget, or something personal. Nahum, like Nahum, was always right to the point. Here is the email I got from him once all the eSnips transaction was finalized:

"All, we finally received all signatures on the Logia agreement this morning. Thanks to all involved. Nahum". What a way to summarize 6 months of hard and frustrating work.

I will definitely miss him.

I left Silicon Valley on April 1st.

I travelled through the Northwest, visiting California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

I spent a few days in Atlanta (mostly shopping).

I landed in Israel 2 weeks ago, and been running around trying to organize our new life, and get back into the work action.

But today I decided to make it official. I am back. Going forward, it will be much easier to write about Israel Venture Capital 2.0.

I am currently traveling with my family around the US, sort of a goodbye trip before we return back to Israel. Today we stopped for lunch in Butte, Montana. I never heard of this place, and I was quite surprised to find so many restaurants. A quick conversation with our waitress revealed a bit of the local history: Turns out Butte was the largest copper mine back in the early 20th century. At some point it was the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, with 100K+ people. Here is a direct quote from Wikipedia:

“Butte began as a mining town in the late 19th century in the Silver Bow Creek Valley, a natural bowl sitting high in the Rockies straddling the Continental Divide. At first only gold and silver were mined in the area, but the advent of electricity caused a soaring demand for copper, which was abundant in the area. The small town soon became one of the most prosperous cities in the country, especially during World War I, and was often called "the Richest Hill on Earth". It was the largest city for many hundreds of miles in all directions. The city attracted workers from Ireland, Wales, England, Lebanon, Canada, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Italy, China, Syria, Croatia, Mexico and all areas of the USA.”

But after World War I, the place began to wind down it’s copper production, and right now there are about 30K people only, and according to our waitress, about 50% of them are retired. And I must say the place really felt like a Ghost town. Beautiful but run-down buildings, empty streets. As you drove around town you can only think about the history and imagine how the streets and Saloons looked like 100 years ago.

Personally, it made me think about Silicon Valley. Isn’t the same quote above relevant to Silicon Valley today? The place attracts workers from all over the world. We won’t be around to see what happens in 100 years, but not sure technology will not move on to somewhere else (How about Israel? The Copper mining industry moved to Chile…). Also, Butte tells an interesting story of the US 2009. Amazing amazing past, but a lot of declining industries, and a real need to for reinvention. I guess that’s what Obama is all about.

Today is January 20th, 2009. Today is a special day, one of those days that you will always remember. The US had 6 presidents since I was born (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.), but this one is probably the most important. There are a few reasons for this: He is Black, He is a natural leader, and he is providing hope for a country that needs a lot of change.

But there is another reason why this president is so special. Obama is the first president that is truly from MY GENERATION. He is (almost) my age, he likes basketball, addicted to his Blackberry, and uses Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. He even likes some of the music I love (Bob Dylan, Miles Davis).

I hope Obama will show the world that my generation can make a big difference. Unrelated to his political views, Obama has 4 key attributes that I really like; Charisma, Professionalism, Addiction to Technology, and the ability to create hope for people.

I truly hope that 20 years from now people will ask: "Where were you during Barack Obama's inauguration?". My answer is going to be simple: "In the US, watching the inauguration online".

After being here for more than 2 years, there are few places that have become regulars for me. These are places I visit often, and that I usually recommend to others when asked. Since a lot of Israelis that come over here ask me for local recommendations, I decided to list here some of my favorite locations. I also decided to map all the places. Check it on Live Maps.

In the past 20 years I have built a nice music collection. A lot of CDs, tapes, albums, and online music. All now represented in about 40GB of music. I still consume it in all formats (Even cassettes sometimes...), but mostly on my iTunes/iPod (Usually when running and when traveling). So far so good.

But lately, I am starting to get frustrated with the level of understanding/interaction I have with my own music collection. There are great technologies out there that help me find music that I may like (of course, there is a business model in that). Those include Pandora, Last.fm, and even Amazon.

But I am looking for something different. I want a technology that will help me discover and understand my own music collection. Apple recently launched Genius, which is a first step in that direction. The problem is that Genius is very predictable. I pick a Led Zeppelin song, and it doesn't matter what song, I get the same suggestions: Jumping Jack Flash by the Stones, Highway Star by Deep Purple. I don't need to be a Genius to do that.

So here are the 3 elements I want from my iPod in the future:

1. True (Business) Intelligence: What do I listen to? Not only the songs, but Genres, Albums, Artists. In what songs do stick till the end, and what songs do I skip? All that information is there. I want it.
2. True Discovery. What are some songs that I ALREADY HAVE, and that are left behind? Based on what I listen to, what songs I may actually enjoy (and are a bit less obvious than Light my Fire by the Doors).
3. And finally, a bit unrelated, Additional information on the Albums (and the bands). Can't I have on my iPod a bit of information (from Wikipedia?) on the band and the album? Here is an example. I started listening to the Silos. To be honest, I know nothing about them (I do own the album). Some local information would have been great, and would have helped me engage more in listening to the music.

Anybody interested to take the these ideas and implement them? Maybe there is a business there... The only company I know that is somewhere in the area is TuneUp. Maybe they will add what I want.